I like it! Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman has already cast a stellar group of British actors to play the seven dwarfs in the action film that will see the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) saving and mentoring Snow White (Kristen Stewart) rather than doing away with her as commanded by the evil queen (Charlize Theron). When the last of the primary seven dwarfs was cast I wondered if Gus, the young dwarf mentioned in the script as kind of a hanger-on, had been cut. Looks like he’s still in the picture, though, and he’ll be played by Nick Frost. Read More »

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Over the weekend, San Diego Comic-Con announced the programming schedule for Saturday and Sunday at this year’s convention. Usually, Saturday is the most impressive day as it’s the weekend and has the biggest amount of people coming into the area while Sunday is usually the most unexciting day as it’s the final day of the event and everything is winding down. For 2011, each day is going in the opposite direction. Saturday’s movie programming is very underwhelming, save for a few films like Snow White and the Huntsman and Francis Ford Coppola’s TWIXT, with more cool TV panels popping up than usual. Sunday is significantly better than usual, especially if you like TV, with Hall H panels on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Glee and more.

Read about the highlights, with commentary and more after the jump. Read More »

Snow White and the Huntman isn’t just Universal’s entry in the madcap race to produce a film that updates or otherwise reinterprets the classic story of Snow White. The movie, which stars Kristin Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron and a whole host of wonderful actors as the dwarfs, is intended to kick off a series of movies. Read More »

It’s a rather slow Friday, leaving us plenty of time — too much time, probably — to think about the passing of Peter Falk and Pixar’s fall from the pedestal of perfect reviews. But there are a few bits of casting info out there, and after the break you’ll find the following:

Lily Cole helps round out the cast of Snow White and the Huntsman..

…and Ben Barnes will play the lead role in Seventh Son, opposite Jeff Bridges. Read More »

Briefly: It’s time to stand up and start a slow golf clap for Universal, director Rupert Sanders, and the producers of Snow White and the Huntsman. In the past 36 hours they’ve locked up a collection of British actors to rival Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for pure ‘holy shit’ entertainment value on the big screen. All are being cast in the roles of dwarfs, who in the film are named after famous Roman figures. The latest to sign on is Ray Winstone, who nearly completes the list.

So, the quick recap of the actors and their roles, with a bit of new clarification: Ian McShane is Caesar, the eldest. Stephen Graham is Nero, the angry one. Eddie Izzard is Tiberius, the biggest and burliest. Bob Hoskins is the blind Constantine. Toby Jones is the timid Claudius. And Ray Winstone and Eddie Marsan are the twins Trajan and Hadrian.

And while THR says that Ray Winstone completes the casting, drafts of the script I’ve seen also feature the young dwarf Gus, and we don’t yet have an actor for him. Shooting is set to start in August, and the film will be released on June 1, 2012.

I am becoming slightly conflicted about Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, which is moving forward with Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman, Kristen Stewart as Snow White, Sam Claflin as her Prince and Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen.

I’m conflicted because there are eight dwarf roles in the film, and it would be rather nice to see them filled out by little people. But the producers and director Rupert Sanders are choosing instead to follow some of Peter Jackson’s methods, and use established character actors of average adult size. But when that cast includes Ian McShane, cast last night, and now Eddie Izzard, Bob Hoskins and Toby Jones, it is pretty damn difficult to argue with the choices. Read More »

One of the things that sets Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman slightly apart from some of the other new takes on Snow White is the way it incorporates the dwarfs. In this version there are eight dwarfs, each of which is named after a Roman ruler.

Now the first of those characters has been cast: Caesar, the oldest of the eight, and an enemy to the Queen and old friend to Eric, the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth). We’ve known that actors would be made to look small via on-set tricks and post-production effects. The first guy you can start imagining reduced to a few feet tall is Ian McShane. Read More »

Snow White gets a rewrite, The Smurfs get a sequel and Bastards sells for big bucks. How’s that for alliteration? There’s a bunch of screenwriting news out there right now and, after the jump, we’ll give some context to the following:

Screenwriter Hossein Amini has just been hired to do a rewrite of Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, the second Snow White film scheduled for release next year.

Even though The Smurfs has yet to open in theaters, the producers are already getting ready to write a sequel.

After the success of The Hangover Part II and Bridesmaids, Paramount has just purchased an R-rated comedy spec-script called Bastards by Justin Malen.

The irony of two movies about the sweet, simple character of Snow White doing such vicious battle must be lost on the executives of both Universal and Relativity. For months we’ve been reporting on the dueling developments of Relativity’s Untitled Snow White film (which was at one point called The Brothers Grimm: Snow White) versus Universal’s Snow White and The Huntsman. Each independently locked a director, A-list cast members and release dates but with the Relativity film — directed by Tarsem Singh starring Lily Collins, Armie Hammer and Julia Roberts — completing its cast first and scheduled to start shooting in June, it made sense that it would be out before the other movie. But once the Universal film — directed by Rupert Sanders starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron — finally locked its big roles, it leapfrogged from its original December 2012 release date until June 1, 2012, poising itself to be the first Snow White film on the market.

Tuesday, Relativity countered in a big, big way. They’ve pushed their Tarsem Singh, Julia Roberts film up from June 29 until March 16, 2012, three months before the Universal film. With Huntsman not scheduled to begin shooting until late summer, this will probably be the end of the release date shuffle.

However, in beating its competition to theaters, Relativity’s film is now in danger of being overshadowed by several other major March 2012 family, fantasy releases. Read all about it, as well as the strategically placed release dates of Relativity’s Safe House and Hunter Killer, after the jump. Read More »